HARVESTING WHEAT. 73 



A. No; it was simply a matter of convenience. 



Q. Under what conditions do you usually sow your wheat in 

 the spring? 



A. I seldom ever sow spring wheat; it does not pay in this vicinity. 

 The straw is too weak, which is one of the great difficulties in wheat 

 raising. 



Q. In what sections of the country, do you know, is spring wheat 

 grown with success ? 



A. It is grown to a great extent in Canada, to some extent in Wis- 

 consin, Michigan and northern Iowa, and wholly in Minnesota, and 

 further north and west the conditions necessary to success being a 

 low temperature at its first stages of growth. 



Q. When wheat is sown in the spring is it usual to sow grass 

 with it? 



A. Yes; just in the same manner as in the fall. 



Q. I think I heard you drop the remark that you pastured your 

 wheat in the spring (after it had well started to grow) with sheep. 

 What was the advantage of that? 



A. The object in that is to take off all the old weather-beaten 

 leaves and to feed it down as close as we possibly could, and the 

 treading of the sheep compacts the roots of the wheat, while their 

 droppings serve as a top dressing for it. This of course can only be 

 done on light soils; on wet or sticky clay land it would be an injury. 



Q. At about what time, in your vicinity, do you turn on the sheep ? 



A. Just as soon as the frost or snow is gone, and allow them to re- 

 main until the end of April. Then we harrow with a light harrow so 

 as to stir the surface, after which we roll thoroughly, being careful at 

 that time, of course, that the land is dry enough, so that there may 

 be no danger o dragging the roots of the wheat out of the ground. 



Q. What, in your opinion, is the best stage of the wheat for 

 harvesting ? 



A. I always cut my wheat a week ahead of most of my neighbors, 

 and put it in shocks or ' ' stocks," using a cap sheaf, as, in my expe- 

 rience, the grain by this process fills out in the shocks during that 

 period of time. If let stand until ripe the grain shrinks. Wheat 

 should always be cut before the grain becomes hard, and when you 

 can easily crush it between the finger and thumb, or about the stage 

 when the milk disappears, and the grain becomes firm, but not hard. 



Q. Is it usual in your vicinity for wheat to be put up in stacks or 

 placed in barns, or is it threshed in the field ? 



A. I put my wheat in stacks in the field or in barracks so as to 

 11 sweat " it. As soon as it is through the process of sweating, I thresh 

 it. The threshing is done by two-horse tread power. 



